The Enigmatic Challenge
by Tyltalis
Summary: An Elite Trainer is given an invitation to a "special" challenge in a mythical region. Problem is, nobody's ever heard of it. With only cryptic hints to guide her, she and several other elite trainers are thrust into a weird adventure...
1. Chapter 1: Invitation

"You're really gonna fall for this, Yu?!"

Harpy the hawlucha was deadpan with her words, as she haphazardly snatched the neat cursive letter from her trainer Yu's hands. The trainer scanned around the ice cream shop, locking eyes with her greninja Hyde across the street and white-flowered florges napping in her bag. The florges Isis, opened a single eye, and went back to sleep without a word. Hyde on the other hand completely missed the whole scene, focusing only on devouring his ice cream with his tongue scarf. The white haired girl rolled her eyes at her Pokémon's unhelpful responses.

Yu crinkled her nose, and tensed her shoulders, prepared to launch at the luchador hawk. Harpy sensed it however, and flew to perch at the top of the nearby ice cream building.

Her yellow and black eyes narrowed as she scrutinized the text:

_Dear Yu White,_

_You have been specially selected out of hundreds of advanced trainers to participate in a special challenge located in the mystical region of Erito. You will be competing with only best of the best: the only trainers allowed to participate are trainers who have achieved the rank of Master trainer, or rather, those who have achieved 48 badges and defeated at least three Pokemon League Champions. Of course, finding the region is part of the challenge. I'll give you a couple hints, of course._

_First of all, Erito can't be accessed by normal means, oh no. It's a mystical region for a reason. There is a portal that must be opened up somewhere._

_Second of all, the portal requires proof. A sort of key, if you will. That would be the Enigma stone._

_Third, and finally, I hid the Enigma stone somewhere on the Sevii Islands._

_I trust you will be up to the task?_

_Sincerely,_

_Headmaster_

Harpy promptly rolled the letter up into a ball and tossed it into the trash bin, missing only by a couple centimeters. Yu scoffed, and dove at the letter before the fruity hawk had a chance to stop her.

"Well, I'M somewhat intrigued."

Hyde seemingly appeared out of nowhere, his nasally voice startling Isis out of Yu's bag. Gracefully, she stopped herself from falling on the concrete, slowing her fall with a well-timed float. The tiny fairy pokémon quietly "humped" as she flew back up to her resting place.

"I would disregard this letter, Yu. As much as I loathe to admit it… Harpy may actually be right about it. It sounds somewhat like-"

"A TRAP! Think of all the bloodshed! This could be an evil team's evil plan to evilly kill off the advanced trainers one by one and…"

The rest of the gang ignored Harpy's blabbering. Hyde raised his eyebrows, amused.

"Bloodshed? Hmm…" He smirked the himself, mumbling under his breath. Finally, he spoke up.

"For."

"Against," Harpy and Isis simultaneously said, in a weirdly unplanned synchronization. Yu threw away her ice cream cone, pulling out two pokéballs. She knew what was coming. Harpy and Isis tended to be disobedient when they disagreed with her (particularly Isis, that spoiled princess…).

"This isn't up for discussion. It should be an interesting change of pace. We haven't had a real challenge in ages. Think of it as part of our training regime. Besides, I've never been to the Sevii Islands."

Yu pursed her lips into a tight smile.

Before the two who objected had a chance to argue, Yu threw a well-timed pokéball at the quick-witted yet distracted Harpy. A look of disgust ornamented Isis' face before she too was covered in a red aura, and disappeared. Hyde remained unmoved, his blue scaly arms crossed comfortably.

"Pack your bags, Hyde. We're going on a plane trip."

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

The Lumiose City Airport was buzzing with activity. People and pokémon went about their business, many carrying heavy suitcases. It was spacious, full of energy, large, open, round, and _very, very crowded._ The stink of processed food filled the air. Yu wrinkled her nose in vague disgust. Hyde nonchalantly walked by her side, carrying the team's bags without so much as a word of protest. They pushed through the human obstacles, at one point rudely cutting through a coffee line. _Of course it doesn't count as cutting if you don't actually get in line, _Hyde would reassure Yu, but she still had her doubts.

They finally stopped at a large stack of monitors, each displaying lines of green text. The terminals. Yu stared at the monitor, squinting her small black eyes at the mass of letters:

**Terminal 1 – Battle Zone Island – 2:30 pm**

**Terminal 2 – Saffron, Kanto – 3:15 pm**

**Terminal 3 – Fall City, Fiore – 3:20 pm**

**Terminal 4 – One Island – 4:00 pm** _Ah-ha!_

She sighed in relief that she didn't have to scrutinize all 40 terminals. Yu was always weird with busywork. She looked down at her watch. 2:23 pm. _Looks like we have a couple of hours to burn._ She looked over at her loyal greninja, only… he wasn't there. In his place, her suitcase rested on the ground.

"Hyde?"

It was odd. Usually Hyde was disinterested in the goings-on of large crowds, especially if it meant leaving his trainer alone. Biting her lip, she figured since they had time, she would let him do his thing. So, picking up her suitcase, she made her way to the waiting area. Only to be greeted with a mass of people.

And no empty seats. _Figures._

She raised her eyebrows in minor annoyance and settled for sitting on one of the giant window sills. She looked out the windows, zoning out into the sky with the planes as they took off. Before she knew it, she sat back into the window, closing her eyes.

"Yu?" Hyde's voice perked her up.

"Hyde? Where did you go? You know it's unwise to wander off by yourself in a crowded terminal. Ah well, just let me know next time."

He cleared his throat. "Well, I figured you'd be hungry, and I wanted you to save poke, so…"

He produced a small box from his tongue scarf, dripping with saliva. Any appetite Yu might have had was quickly obliterated. Seeing his trainer's reaction, he opened the box to reveal a smaller, untarnished box. On its top, it read BENTO in classy cursive.

"Wow, thanks Hyde. That's really nice of you. You remembered that I hate really artificial food and even remembered my favorite brand. Double points. Although… how did you acquire Poké…?" Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. Hyde was unmoved. He merely shrugged and assumed a three-point sit next to her.

"Oh don't tell me… You STOLE it? Arceusdamnit Hyde. How many times do I have to tell you! Things in the human society aren't like the Pokémon society! You have to PAY for your food!"

Hyde barely reacted to her harsh tone. Instead, he chippered up. Yu could've sworn she saw him smile beneath his tongue.

"You humans are gonna drive yourself crazy with all your civilized rule tauroscrap. Gotta help when I can. And…"

Yu face palmed, banging her head against the window, wandering if he was really ever going to get her in trouble one day. Then again, he _was _a greninja. No pokémon knows stealth like those guys. Still, she had to teach her Pokémon to behave. Their behavior reflected on her ability as a trainer, after all.

"What can I say? I'm an economist."

Yeah, he was definitely going to be the end of her career.

Nonetheless, she was hungry. And her dear starter was only trying to be nice. So, without further thought, she dove into the bento box fork first.

"Don't worry about me, either. I got a few apples on my little shopping spree."

Yu knew that "a few" to Hyde meant at least a dozen. _Especially_ when it concerned apples. However, she didn't think much of it, instead grateful that she got the box all to herself

Hey, just because it was "specially acquired" didn't mean she couldn't enjoy it.

They continued to pass the time with conversation and food when their pleasantries were interrupted by loud yelling. Muffled, over the crowd's voices, but definitely yelling, judging by their body language. Yu looked up to see a blue-suited boy with a red tie and gray, tufted hair arguing with a blaziken with white feathered feet. Other than the white feet, the lady blaziken didn't look much different… save for her strikingly confident eyes. Behind her, a thin young woman with a pale complexion, frameless glasses over olive eyes, a blue beret-like hat and a black coat and pants wryly kept her distance, observing the scene timidly, but with mild interest.

They continued yelling for quite a while, with neither showing signs of backing down. Finally, the blaziken's trainer finally managed to grow a pair (or got tired of the conflict, Yu couldn't tell) and allowed the boy to get ahead of the two, much to her blaziken's frustration.

"Can you believe that? What a pushover. I'm sure you would have held your ground against that guy, Yu."

Yu forced herself to smile and muttered a shy "right" under her breath. Looking up, again, however, she locked eyes with the intimidating boy. And shivered.

She stared straight into his blood-red eyes, unable to look away. The boy didn't look away though, oh no. He held his ground just as strongly as he did in the conflict with the blaziken. And he started walking to her. Oh shi-

Every step he took seemed to shake the earth. Yu silently prayed that a fissure would open under her and suck her into nothingness before this boy had a chance to yell at her. Hyde, on the other hand, was unmoved. He sat with his left leg casually crossed over his right, arms crossed of course, but not defensively.

"You!" His deep, masculine voice echoed. However, a security guard's machoke managed to creep up behind him, locking him in front of the muscled monster. The security guard said something unintelligible and the boy struggled to break free, cursing both of them. The machoke and his trainer would have none of it, however, and carried him off to Arceus knows where.

"Well," Hyde suddenly appeared with an armful of newly stolen goods.

"That was interesting. Pretzel?"

"Oh for Arceus's sake, Hyde! Will you cut it out with the shoplifting!"

It was sure to be an interesting trip indeed.

* * *

**Long time no see, FF. I'll keep a consistent schedule of updates on this story. It'll be at least once a week, on Monday. You can look forward to that. Yes, I'm very excited for this story and I've been planning it out for a while now.**

**So yay. Enthusiasm.**

**-Alta**


	2. Chapter 2: The Plane Trip

"_Humanity. The standing work of Earth. We create, tame, help, lead. What can Humanity do? Take a stand. Join the Protestors. For the greater good. For Humanity."_

Yu rolled her eyes, not even bothering to look at the screen. It was the same vague stuff over and over. What were they even advertising, anyway? Some weird religious anti-pokémon bullshit, most likely. People like that were something of a running gag in the trainer community. What Yu felt was a strange mix of amusement and anger. She would try to get Hyde in on the malicious jokes toward him, but she "was too intense." Figures. Hyde could always care less… about everything. She couldn't bring it up to her other pokémon, either. Isis would not listen, maybe even make Yu look like a fool to bring her down. But that was always Isis' goal. Bitch can't ever be bothered to step an inch down from her high ponyta. Harpy, on the other hand. Even a simple religious flaming contest couldn't be held with her. She'd always turn the subject into a huge paranoid spiel, and Yu generally didn't like calming down a loud, paranoid, extremely-strong-for-its-size bird wrestler.

Caught up in her thoughts, Yu didn't notice the creature headed straight toward her and took a faceful of a clumsy purple flying pokémon. She nearly fell on her back, instead doing a weird back-bend, keeping her balance. Blinded by a cloud of anger, she snapped to her feet, and punched whatever attacked her with a decently-powered punch.

The crobat went flying, but quickly regained its composure, flapping its wings to regain altitude right before it hit the tile floor.

"Shi! Geez lady, watch where you're standing! Could've mauled you! Shishishi!"

Oh. A relatively small, Brock-eyed crobat with an obnoxious laugh. Small, easy prey, Yu thought cracking her knuckles.

"Watch where I'm standing? _Watch where I'm standing?!_ Listen you squinty-eyed purple brat, I don't know who you think you are-"

"Eris! I knew it was a bad idea to turn my back on you, you silly mischievous thing."

The bronze, blue-eyed bleach-blonde boy appeared out of the blue (or so Yu thought, she oftentimes gets caught up in things). He had a strange sense of style too, Yu thought, glancing over his wave-design wife beater and white, pocketed khaki pants. Come to think of it, he looked like the very personification of a beach boy.

"So sorry about my crobat," Beach-boy said suavely, doing a flippy thing with his hair. For added bonus, he flashed a smile and winked, doing this weird pretty boy pose with his hands. _Is that supposed to have an effect on me? _Yu thought. There was something about this guy she didn't really like. He did that flippy hair thing again.

"Well, how about you? What's your name, you?"

_Oh Arceus, he knows my name. Get him away. Get away!_

Of course, all Yu could do was remain silent and unabashedly still, unable to move.

"Such striking silver hair…" He moved closer and rose a bronze sculpted hand.

_Oh Arceus, no, nonono! Get away get awaygetawaygetaway!_

Hyde snickered in the background, useless in these situations as ever. Yu mouthed a "help me" to him. He turned the other way. _Well, if he won't help me… _Yu skimmed her fingers against one of the ultra balls on her belt.

"Well, I would love to stay and chat, Miss Nameless, but I have things to take care of. Ta-ta for now."

He turned to leave. But just when she thought she was out of the hot water, she dropped the ultra ball she pulled from her belt. The button side landed on the hard floor, was pressed, and as luck would have it, a very energized, crazy-eyed hawlucha appeared in a flash of energy, and literally threw herself at the boy.

"CHEEEEEEEEP!" she shrieked, tackling the boy to the ground.

"Harpy, no! Bad! Bad Harpy!"

"CHEEEP!"

Unfortunately, Harpy didn't relent. She stayed put, keeping the boy on the ground. Unable to calm the wrestler bird with words, Yu stepped forward to do so in a more direct fashion, but Beach Boy's crobat Eris beat her to it, wrapping the creature up in its bottom pair of wings and 'gently' throwing her. Harpy landed gracefully on her feet, however, and used the ground to launch into the hair, puffing up her chest, arms back, chin up. She launched her Flying Press at Eris. However, quick as she was, the even quicker crobat simply did an aerial 'sidestep' and snickered as Harpy landed chest first into the tile, leaving a relatively deep hole.

Humiliated, Yu took the fighting and flying-type's pause as an opportunity to return her. She looked back at the young man and his crobat, reflexively. He smiled, shrugging.

"Pretty feisty pokémon. Strong, too. Oh, hey-"

"Let's just… pretend this entire exchange never happened."

The boy raised an eyebrow, bemused. "Noted."

She walked away haphazardly. Complete strangers stared at her. Keep walking, she told herself.

Just… keep walking.

The trainers and a handful of pokémon shuffled into the long, tube-like terminal. Signs were hung on the walls, warning trainers to keep only one pokémon out at a time – if they must. A list of several other restrictions was in place as well, mostly having to do with the kinds of pokémon allowed out.

Yu shuffled down the hallway, Hyde at her side, casually crossing his arms. Finally, she arrived at the border between the terminal tube and the plane. She locked eyes with the security guard checking everyone's passes and poke balls.

"Come on lady, don't just stand there! Keep the line goin'!" the skinny effeminate blue-haired security man said in an obvious accent. _Castelian, perhaps?_

"Oh, er, yes. Here." She flashed her ticket.

"Let me see your balls, ma'm."

"_Excuse me?"_

The young man rolled his eyes, loudly sighing.

"Your pokéballs. Please hand them over."

Yu paused, grazing her fingers over the two full balls at her belt. She looked behind her, at the impatient line, to her side at a ticking clock…

"…I'll give them right back. Weren't you paying any attention?" Shrugging, Yu handed them over. The man pulled out what looked like a grocery checking machine from his belt, and flashed a green light at the pokéballs.

"It sets the balls to a special locking mode. It'll be neutralized when you step out of the plane. Don't think too hard about it, sweet pea."

Yu frowned, stepping forward into the plane after taking her pokéballs back. Hyde stoically followed behind her, having nearly ignored the whole exchange.

"Ah-ah. One second, Greninja. Hold still."

At first, Hyde didn't think much of it. At first, he thought he was just going to ask him a question real quick. At first, Hyde didn't expect his arm to be _fucking assaulted by a long thick needle._ Whatever neutral trance the ninja frog was in, he snapped to his toes, and narrowed his eyes.

"Excuse you, _respectable sir, _but I don't recall giving you my permission to jam a _fucking needle _into my arm.

The security guard opened his mouth to respond, but at his first breath, Hyde launched a Water Shuriken.

…Or he would've, anyway. Nothing happened. At all. In fact, Hyde… he really wasn't that angry anymore. _Hey, the security guard's hair was a cool color…_ Hyde gazed into the distance. Oh, look. Birds… He liked birds….

Yu whipped around, facing the scene. "You monster! What have you done to him?!"

"Oh, nothing. Just a quick sedation to protect from terrorist attacks. It prevents pokemon from using their powers. And gives them a nice, long-lasting euphoric disassociation to go with it."

The security man blew the tip of the needle. "Now carry on. You're holding up the line."

Yu opened her mouth to respond, but found nothing came out. Defeated, she just shook her head and continued on into the plane, pulling her intoxicated greninja along.

This was only a prelude to a long string of harrowing events, but Yu knew. She knew.

Airplane seats, at their best, were poor excuses for comfortable armchairs. At their worst, well, you didn't even have arm room. This airplane in particular had four chairs a row, an interesting change from the usual. _Well, the airplane was a bit of a fatass._

Yu herself was stuffed between a … rather large nidoking and a girl with large hips, with her sedated greninja, intoxicated, looking out the window on arguably the best seat available. She lazily sighed, pulling the headphones over her head and shutting her eyes tight as the plane took off. Oh, she hated the takeoff and landing. So, so much.

Finally, they were in the air. Yu had gone into a trance, taking to staring at the advertisements preluding the airplane movie, _Braviary Eye._

"_Humanity. The standing work of Earth. We create, tame, help, lead. What can Humanity do? Take a stand. Join the Protestors. For the greater good. For Humanity."_

"This ad again? Who the hell are these people, anyway? Some new criminal syndicate?"

"Yeah, most likely," The girl whose hips were crushing her suddenly said. Raising an eyebrow, Yu glanced to her side to look at the girl. Tan, striking green eyes, white blouse, floral jeans. Yu also noted that she had a neat, wavy brown braid.

"You haven't heard of them? Geez. You must be somewhat sheltered then." Braid Girl had a cheerful smile. Yu couldn't determine if it was one of mockery.

"Or maybe not. You must not watch television or read the news that often. So, oblivious. Not sheltered."

Yu sneered. Oh, another person she didn't like. There were far too many of those around.

"Hey, just stating facts. Nothing to get your hair tangled over. Oh, if you're interested, stay away from these people. They're a weird religious group who believe pokémon are demons. No kidding."

Yu muttered an amused "Wow," under her breath, shaking her head. Some people have obviously not been paying attention to the past two centuries of history. Pokémon were the root of Earth's society, revered and respected by humans as companions and team mates. What else would you have but respect for the former animals who were mutated by the chemical World War III? They were certainly quite respectful for supposed mindless beasts who could have easily taken out humanity with their newfound mutant powers.

"Anyway, they've been opening up weird businesses and conducting weird activities and sketchy experiments that are questionably legal and _definitely _anti-pokémon. Rumor has it that they're aiming to bring pokémon to extinction, preserving only ones that can be eaten and stuff. That's what the Ranger Union is still figuring out though. They don't have any raw evidence, so they can't be persecuted yet."

Well, Braid Girl was certainly useful for information. She earned a bit of Yu's respect, so the white-haired girl held out a pale hand.

"Yu White. Elite Trainer, and qualified for Champion of Sinnoh, Kalos and Unova regions."

The other girl raised her eyebrows, clearly impressed. "Well. Rhianne Barrestein, elite trainer, and qualified for Champion in Johto, Kanto, Hoenn, AND Unova. Authoress of the best-selling Advanced Battling training manual, and recognized prodigal trainer."

Yu frowned. It didn't happen all that often, but she hated when people one-upped her in accomplishments. _Especially _when they were pretentious pricks about it. She felt a burning rivalry toward the girl, and fantasized about kicking her ass for her much-deserved title of Unovan Champion.

…It didn't help that Yu was a huge fan of her Advanced Battling manual, either. She made a mental note to take out or at least refine every technique she learned out of the book. Even _if _Rhianne was basically her role model for the longest time, it was immediately neutralized the second Yu found out she was a cocky know-it-all.

"And this is my trusty partner and starter, Kingsley." She gestured to the overly muscular and large nidoking snoozing beside her. The strongest pokémon were always the least intimidating, it seemed. Yu still fantasized about how Hyde could easily kick its ass.

"What brings you to the Sevii Islands, anyway? Based on your somewhat superior accomplishments, would I be correct in my assumption you're taking the Erito challenge? Every Master Rank Trainer got the letter."

Yu considered lying to the girl just because she was tired of her constant achievements.

"No, just on vacation."

"Eh, figures. I s'pose 'best of the best' sounded a bit intimidating to you." She shrugged, putting her arms behind her head. Yu scowled.

"I'm kidding. I could easily guess by how defensive you are of your pride that you're taking the challenge."

Yep, Yu really, really didn't like this girl. She mentally hit herself for ever picking up her book. And she would be stuck for hours on the plane next to her. Yu wondered if she could get Harpy to be a surrogate parachute but then remembered the special security airplanes had in place. She wouldn't be able to call out her other pokémon until the plane landed…

Still, she needed to get away from this Rhianne. Yu got up, but was immediately knocked back down on her butt. The plane shook violently.

"Huh, that's quite a bit of turbulence," Rhianne said, jumping to her feet and succeeding where Yu did not. "I'mma ask the pilot."

Another violent shake. Rhianne, too, was knocked back down on to her seat.

"_Attention, passengers. This is your pilot speaking. Please remain calm and form a straight line for the emergency exits. If you do not have a flying pokemon, there are parachutes under your seat. Those that do have any flying pokemon, please release them and be ready to defend yourselves and-."_

The plane was immediately rife with chatter and panicked voices, making it nearly impossible to hear the announcement. Yu felt a pang of fear in the pit of her stomach. The pilot was asking everyone to release pokémon?

"_Please be wary on your way out. The pokéball restrictions have been lifted for your protection."_

Yu's mind was racing. She's never heard anything like that. If there was a faulty engine and they needed to go to the emergency exits, wouldn't there be parachutes for that? Risking being attacked by terrorists'' pokémon was a big deal. And she was right. Yu would never forget this day, that fear and wonder she felt.

The day she felt her heart stop, and her stomach drop. She finally made out what the pilot was saying:

"_There is an aggressive Latios attacking the plane."_

* * *

**Sorry for the late chapter. There's been an internet problem for the longest time and I couldn't upload. Dx I'm sorry!**

**The next chapter is almost finished and updates should be regular from now on.**


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